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The Battle Against Garbage Can Odors

There’s nothing too exciting about garbage cans, except how you feel if you pull a full trash bag out and it bursts and spews all kinds of undesirables all over the kitchen floor.

If you have garbage, such as soggy lettuce, fermenting flounder, greasy goat cheese, and much more, you will have odors from it.

Odors naturally occur from bacteria, which is what grows quickly on organic material. And then you have mold adding to the issue. All this fermenting in a dark, damp playground known as your garbage can.

Even if you have a secure trash can lid, the odors have a mind of their own and an evil intent to escape.

There are several things you can do to limit the effect of garbage can odors.

Take out the trash

It may seem simplistic, but most of us wait too long to take out the trash. A smell garbage can inside is terrible – the one outside waiting to be hauled away isn’t much better, but at least it is outside. Make it a practice to take out the trash before the bag is full.

Use quality scented bags

By quality, we mean bags that have a thicker mil rating, as they won’t break as easy. Yes, they cost more and use more plastic. Look at keeping the mil for your trash bag at 2 or above. The scented bags really do a great job hiding, not removing, odors. They mask bad odors and give you more time between taking out the trash before you start to notice odors.

Use baking soda

Baking soda is a typical household fixture. By sprinkling baking soda in the bottom of your garbage can and even in the bag, it helps to limit the odors caused by bacteria. It does this by absorbing odors instead of them being released into the air you breathe.

Give it a hosing

Like all things, garbage cans need to be cleaned. You might say, “I use bags!” but that doesn’t matter. Odors build up no matter what you do, and a good cleaning with baking soda or other cleaning products, and hosing or rinsing out the can, will help keep lingering odors at bay.

And like all things, quality cleaning of the surfaces in your home are better performed by the pros. Do the right thing, call your favorite cleaning company when you need help. After all, it pays to call a pro!